Echoing the overall orientation in the SDGs to “leave no one behind”, the 2020 GEM Report will take an in-depth look at inclusion and education, showing the barriers faced by the most vulnerable, including people with disabilities.

An initial concept note for the Report shows that, by analysing policies the world over, the research will aim to present evidence on the different elements of education systems that can support inclusion, such as laws and policies, governance and finance, curricular and learning materials, teachers, school infrastructure, school selection and parental and community views. A range of indicators will be examined for their effectiveness in measuring inclusion in education.

The 2020 Report will ask the following questions:

What are the key policy solutions for each of the elements of inclusive education to ensure the achievement of SDG 4?

How can common obstacles to the implementation of such inclusive education policies be anticipated and overcome?

What arrangements are needed to coordinate among government sectors, tiers of government and with other stakeholders to overcome overlapping dimensions of exclusion?

How do education systems monitor exclusion in education (with regard both to individual education attainment or success and to systemic factors) and how can current practices be improved? To what extent systems monitor exclusion from the learning process for learners who are in schools?

What channels of financing are used for inclusive education policies around the world? How are they monitored and how do they affect local practice?

The team would like to invite you to:

Provide substantive feedback to the proposed lines of research

Recommend interesting examples of policies and practices from around the world that highlight how inclusive education policies look like in different countries and how inclusive education is implemented in schools and classrooms

Recommend potential areas of new research drawing on already established or previously unexplored sources of quantitative and qualitative data

The views of anyone with an interest in education and development – whether governments, non-government organizations, donors, researchers, practitioners, parents and students – are most welcome. Please read the concept note and contribute to this online consultation before the end of September.

Post your contributions as comments (below) to this blog, providing web links to research reports, policy papers, evaluations, and other documents or datasets that you think would be useful for the Report team.

If you would rather email your comments or attach documents or data that you would like to share with the GEM Report team, please send them directly to gemreport@unesco.org with ‘2020 Report Consultation’ as a subject heading.

Inclusive education is directly related with universalization. Thus, the more relevant challenge today is related with education for all. Education for rich but for poor people, too. In other words, we are talking about elites. High quality and recognition institutions on one hand, and the rest on the other one. Inclusion should be associated with universalization of high quality. That means no elite institutions. No elites of teachers. No elites of students. No elites of citizens. Inclusion means democracy. How is the effect of rankings on elitization? How bad is the effect of rankings on inclusiveness? To study the impact of rankings on inclusiveness could be a matter of fact. In principle, rankings are a gigant invisible barrier for inclusion and equity.
“Leave no one behind” means all at the very front. Equal opportunities for everybody.
A simple example of social stratification consolidated by the higher education system can be found in a Colombian familiar situation: An Industrial Engineer from the top elite private university is prepared to be the manager of the company, the Industrial Engineer from the top elite public university is educated to be the manager of the plant, and the Industrial Enginner from the less reputation university is prepared to be the plant engineer.
On the other hand, rankings are pushing policies in many countries, to look for the positioning of “at least” one o their universities in the Shanghai Ranking (that means economic resources extremely concentrated on very few institutions, usually at the capital cities). Efforts are concentrated on one or only few universities, increase elitization quickly and exclusion increase, too.
Consequently, I suggest to evaluate the impact on equity and inclusion generated by the rankings globally promoted with intensity along the current century.